To finish off my round-up of 2015 and to celebrate what will be at the end of the month my first year of blogging I thought I’d revisit my 100th post – “A Review Retrospective” .  Published in July it looked at the reviews that had been attracting the most attention.  Has the last five months brought about any change, or is it the same posts getting the visitors?  Here is my 2015 most popular reviewsrevues posts Top 5.

5.The Secrets To Ruling School – Neil Swaab (Published 2015.  Reviewed in June)

The only book in the 5 which didn’t appear in my most read chart back in July, this has attracted a steady stream of visitors for the last half of the year and is the most popular children’s book review on the site.  Neil and I were in contact via Twitter where he thanked me for the review and confessed he had never heard of  the St Custard’s books featuring Molesworth (eg: “Down With Skool” by Geoffrey Wilans) which so entertained British schoolchildren of an earlier generation (perhaps these books didn’t make it over to the USA).  I hope he has managed to track these down as I am sure he would enjoy them…

4. Murder! Hollywood Style- Carol Branston (Published 2015.  Reviewed in May)

With delightfully trashy characters this recreates nicely the golden days of best sellers by the likes of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins.  It was great that Carol got in touch with me about the review and agreed to be the very first of my author interviews in my Author Strikes Back strand.  This boosted the traffic to the book and hopefully got the author a lot of sales.  Since then I’ve had a visit from a friend of Carol’s who turned up on my doorstep to pass on Carol’s best wishes.  Who says it’s a lonely life blogging?!!

3. Bell’s A Poppin’ – Madeline Bell (A 2004 CD release of a 1967 album.  Reviewed in March)

The most read of my CD reviews which has attracted a strong following throughout the year.  Looking at trends there’s a  marked difference between book review readers and CD readers.  It is the newest books that tends to attract the most visitors but it is the older, more obscure music releases that draw the crowds.  It’s great to see that this highly under-rated American performer who recorded this album over here in the UK has not been forgotten.

2. The Mark And The Void – Paul Murray (Published in 2015.  Reviewed in June)

A case of ever the bridesmaid?  Having just been pipped to the post in my reviewsrevues Book Of the Year rundown by one of the last books I read in 2015 this book which was at the top of the most read pile when I published the 100th post has slipped down to the runner-up position.  Shortlisted at the Irish Book Awards where it would have been a very deserving winner it lost out to Anne Enright’s “The Green Road“.  For me it was the best book published last year and a great achievement.

The most read review in 2015 was…………………………….(fanfare!) (drum rolls)

1.The Murders At White House Farm- Carol Ann Lee (Published in 2015.  Reviewed in June)

Made number 6 in my Best Books Of The Year and my favourite slab of non-fiction I read in 2015.  This book fascinated and unnerved me and over the last six months the review has managed to surge ahead of its rivals.  This bodes well for the paperback edition which is due in (I think) April.  It was great that Carol Ann got in touch and agreed to my rigorous interviewing technique (!) in my author strikes back strand.  Congratulations to Carol Ann Lee- your book has proved to be the one on reviewsrevues that most readers wanted to find out about!

So it’s now 2016 and time to reset the counters back to zero.  I’ll revisit these statistics for my 200th post (probably not that far away now).

I’ve finished all my year-end retrospectives now – It’s time to get on with 2016!!